Guardian 27,474 – Puck

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An entertaining puzzle from Puck, with several nice &lit clues.

No theme that I can see, though I’m happy to be corrected. Thanks to Puck.

Thanks to Simon S at comment 21 for pointing out that there is indeed a theme: the Incredible String Band album The HANGMAN’s BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. SWINDLE Primarily suppress flatulence? The French do (7)
S[uppress] + WIND (flatulence) + LE (French “the”)
5. ACCOUNT Story of Dracula, say (7)
Homophone of “a count”
10. STIGMA Mark‘s tense opening letter from Crete (6)
T in SIGMA (Greek letter)
11. ILLUMINE Light up with Scottish smoker during one row (8)
LUM (Scots chimney) in I LINE
12. DAD Adult with two 14s around? (3)
A between two D[aughters], &lit, with a question mark as not all dads have two daughters
13. GHETTO Playing together with no hesitation in Jewish quarter (6)
Anagram of TOGETHER less ER (hestitation). The word ghetto comes from the name of an area of Venice that jews were restricted to until it was dissolved by Napoleon
14. DAUGHTER Issue raised by the Guardian, not the Scotsman, surprisingly (8)
Anagram of THE GUARDIAN less IAN (scotsman)
15. ISAAC One of three patriarchs from two different 5s (5)
ISA (tax-free savings account in the UK) + AC (another “account”). In Genesis, Isaac is the son of Abraham and father of Jacob
16. BEDAUBING Smearing teacher, having deployed a bug outside home (9)
B.ED. (Bachelor of Education) + IN (home) in (A BUG)*
19. UNCLAIMED Apparently nobody’s 12’s brother died keeping goal (9)
AIM (goal) in UNCLE (Dad’s brother) + D
21. BATHS Crazy about hotel swimming pool location (5)
H[otel] in BATS
24. SWANSONG Final appearance of US actress — good! (8)
[Gloria] SWANSON + G
26. ACT ONE Tip from Antonio Conte about start of play (3,3)
Anagram of A[ntonio] CONTE
27. HAT Somewhat posh? A topper, perhaps (3)
Hidden in posH A Topper, &lit
28. DOMINANT So controlling! (8)
Double definition – music theory time: in tonic sol-fa, “so” is the fifth note of the scale, also known as the dominant
29. INFAMY Trendy female confronts a setter’s notoriety (6)
IN + F + A + MY (setter’s). I can’t see this word without thinking of Kenneth Williams as Julius Caesar in Carry on Cleo: “Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!”
30. UNHEARD Running nude not dead hard? Not tried yet (7)
Anagram of NU[d]E HARD
31. HOWLING Sounding very windy, if one that’ll fly through stormy night shortly (7)
OWL (one that’ll fly) in anagram of NIGH[t]
Down
2. WITCHES Weird sisters pollarding birches, say (7)
SWITCHES (sticks used for beating, e.g. birch) “pollarded”, i.e. with its top removed. The Weird Sisters are the three witches in Macbeth. (I spent a while trying to justify this as a homophone of “wyches”, meaning certain types of tree)
3. NIGHTFALL Nearly time to crash? (9)
NIGH + T + FALL, &lit – “crash” as in “crash out” = go to bed or sleep
4. LEAD ON Tempt one lad to stray (4,2)
(ONE LAD)*
6. CELLULAR Sort of office layout extremely unusual in a wine store (8)
U[nusua]L in CELLAR. I don’t think I’ve seen the word used in this sense – it’s basically the opposite of open-plan
7. OOMPH Sex appeal? A ton, when topless (5)
A ton is 100 MPH, so remove the 1
8. NANKEEN Cry in support of kid’s mother that’s not big city material (7)
NANNY (female goat) less NY + KEEN (to cry)
9. MIDDLEWEIGHTS Wee condoms, perhaps, if emerging from Spooner’s boxers (13)
Spoonerism of “widdle” (to urinate, wee) “Mates” (brand of condom, launched by Richard Branson)
17. BEAUTIFUL Fine and dandy before return match you lost (9)
BEAU (dandy) + reverse of FIT match) + U (you) L[ost]
18. MINOTAUR Slight hill some say is a monster (8)
Homophone of “minor tor”
20. NEW MOON 12 embraces partners getting married — a regular occurrence (3,4)
E W (partners in bridge) + M[arried] in NOON (12 o’clock)
22. HANGMAN Killer game (7)
Double definition
23. LATINO City can get on top of old Mexican in New York? (6)
LA (Los Angeles) + TIN (can) + O[ld]
25. NAIVE Turning water green (5)
Reverse of EVIAN (French mineral water)

49 comments on “Guardian 27,474 – Puck”

  1. Thanks Puck and Andrew

    I enjoyed this (apart from the “homophone” at 18d, obviously – though now having read the blog it’s not as bad as the “mini-tor” I though was intended!). Favourites were GHETTO, ISAAC, DOMINANT and NEW MOON (the latter for the misdirection of “12”). I didn’t parse BEAUTIFUL.

    Unfortunately, there is nowadays little guarantee that a B.Ed. will be a teacher ?

  3. Thanks, Andrew – me too re INFAMY. 😉

    I couldn’t see any theme, either, but there’s some neat interlinking of clues, which made the misdirection of 12 in 20dn all the neater.

    Lots of fun and some real gems here – as usual, too many to list, really, but I must mention the amusing Spoonerism, as one who isn’t usually a fan of such clues, ISAAC and LEAD ON  – so simple but a lovely surface. [For the record, I had lots more ticks.]

    [muffin @1 – I’m wondering how you pronounce ‘minotaur’?]

    Many thanks to Puck for putting a big smile on my face on a rather dull day.

     

  4. A bit of wind around in 1a and 31a to match the weather here.

    I liked DOMINANT. Might be tricky if you don’t know musical terms. NAIVE reminds me we should do something about our goldfish pond.

    Enjoyed the puzzle. Thank you Puck, and Andrew particularly for the parsings I was too lazy to bother with.

  5. I really enjoyed this one. I didn’t know 100mph = ton or BED for teacher. Like Eileen I have too many favorites to name! I liked the misdirection in NEW MOON- I was looking for ‘dad’ with some odd letters

    Thanks Puck and Andrew

  6. [Eileen @3

    That was what I didn’t like – I thought the “some say” was an attempted justification of a serious mispronunciation! Andrew’s explanation is very much better. I doesn’t quite work for me though – the “R” thing again.]

  8. I found the top half a long easier than the bottom.  Some great clues, especially the misdirection in 20d  I’m also in  the Carry On memory club with 29a.   22d is obviously game of the day as that’s the second crossword today where it has been a solution.

    Thanks to Puck and Andrew

  10. Like others above, I really enjoyed this. But unusually I came here with 5 not fully parsed, held up by ISA, B.Ed, Sol-fa, Mates and L(ost). I also discovered another incorrect, or at least different, parsing. I have always heard and said min-o-tor (as in minimum) and I see that strongly supported as a common pronunciation, Oxford Online for example. So I parsed it as a homophone of minno(w) tor. Worked for me!

    Many thanks to Puck and to Andrew to help with 6 parsings today.

  11. I’m another with lots of ticks (1,13,19a, 3,7,9,20,25d) with MIDDLEWEIGHTS and NAIVE getting smileys as well.
    Being a musical ignoramus I didn’t get that part of DOMINANT but now I think it’s a great clue and it would certainly have got a tick if I’d understood it. I’d forgotten about crosswordland’s Scottish chimney so didn’t parse the LUM bit and I did feel the clueing for BEAUTIFUL was a tad contrived.
    However I don’t want to end on a down note for a most enjoyable puzzle so I’ll add another tick against BATHS – having got the A I was trying to make OASIS parse.
    Thanks to Puck and Andrew.

  12. Like you, WhiteKing@11, I love music but know nothing of the theory, so couldn’t see the significance of the “So” part of the clue for 28a DOMINANT. I enjoyed solving ISAAC 15a (agreeing with others), as well as 5a ACCOUNT and 14a DAUGHTER. It also took me a while to see the wordplay in 20d NEW MOON.
    Had not heard of MATES condoms which was needed to parse the Spoonerism at 9d MIDDLEWEIGHTS, so clearly I am 25d NAIVE. I also thought of “minnow” when solving 18d MINOTAUR, KLColin@10, but had no problemo with the homophone either way.
    An enjoyable challenge – many thanks to Puck and Andrew.

  13. Re MINOTAUR – my question to muffin @3 was a genuine enquiry, as I’ve heard it pronounced with both a long and short ‘i’. I prefer the long one, because it’s the bull of Minos, which I would always pronounce with a long ‘i’ – although, in Greek, the ‘i’ is short in both! I parsed the clue as Andrew did but, If Puck intended the short ‘i’ version, I’d go along with KLColin and JinA with ‘minnow’.

     

  14. Fun fun fun as ever from Puck. 29a would have fitted beautifully into the carry on themed puzzle a few weeks back. A certain reputation – they’ve all got it.

    Thanks to Puck and to Andrew for the excellent blog.

  15. Yes, lovely puzzle. My favourites were DAUGHtER, UNCLAIMED, MIDDLEWEIGHTS and LATINO. Many thanks to Puck and Andrew.

  16. I also thought it was mini-tor at first, and then settled for minnow-tor (a tiddler among tors). Minor-tor hadn’t occurred to me.

    Thanks for the parsing of HOWLING, and for identifying the B.Ed teacher, which had me stumped.

  17. Sorry to be a bit thick but in 18 how can “minnow” be synonymous with “slight”? A minnow is a small=slight fish, but is it also something else?

    Very enjoyable, though, so many thanks to Puck and Andrew.

  18. Martin @17 – both Collins and Chambers have ‘a small or insignificant person or thing’ for ‘minnow’.

  19. Re LUM, can any one from Scotland tell me if “Lang may yer lum reek” is still in common usage?

  20. Crossbar @19 – my Scottish husband used to say it, raising his whisky glass at Hogmanay, and usually adding the line, ‘Wi’ ither folks’ coal!’ – which I’ve just googled and discovered that it was allegedly added by Edinburgh folk. [My husband was from Dundee.]

    Anyway, that’s how I’m familiar with ‘lum’.

  21. Thanks Puck and Andrew

    Initially I thought this was on the weak side for Puck, but I’ve just realised there’s a lot more going on.

    The ghost theme is the Incredible String Band album The HANGMAN’s BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER, which includes The MINOTAUR’s Song, WITCHES HAT, A Very CELLULAR Song, Waltz Of The NEW MOON and NIGHTFALL. There may be other references that I haven’t spotted.

    Am I right in thinking that Puck has done an ISB-themed puzzle before?

  22. Eileen@20 – what a lovely personal anecdote to illustrate LUM and respond to Crossbar@19.

    SimonS@21 – well spotted!! I love ghost theme’s like this which add something extra and take nothing away by “distorting” the puzzle. We’ve definitely had an ISB puzzle before – but was it by Tramp? Archives here we come.

  24. Hi Simon S @21

    We might have known there was more going on, with Puck!

     

    it was a Puck puzzle – and I blogged it! – here

  27. Hi Crossbar – one Google page I found said that it was also a wish when someone moved into a new house.

  28. The album also has tracks called The Water Song and Three is a Green Crown so there’s a vague link with clue 25d, and another called Swift as the Wind which is mentioned in the solution for 1ac – but maybe these are just coincidence. I hope he never tries to include the opening track as a solution – it’s called “Koeeoaddi There”!

  30. First, I’m grateful to Simon S @21 for identifying the ghost theme. Even though there are few bands that I know or like, I do appreciate ghost themes when they are revealed. That is what elevates this crossword in my eyes from superb to one of the best I’ve tackled since 2015 when I started doing Guardian crosswords regularly. It reminded me strongly of another great puzzle, by Tramp on 5 March 2016 [blogged on 12 March], which had a Supertramp theme.

    I particularly liked 14a DAUGHTER, 19a UNCLAIMED, 28a DOMINANT (for which I was lucky enough to know the significance of So), 29a INFAMY, 3d NIGHTFALL, 9d MIDDLEWEIGHTS and 20d NEW MOON.

    I don’t remember seeing B.Ed. before to indicate a teacher, although it’s a pretty obvious real-life connection (in spite of muffin’s observation @1!) I first knew LUM not long ago – either directly from a crossword clue or from a comment by Eileen on that day’s blog! I didn’t know L = lost in 17d, but no doubt this has occurred before.

    There were many clever and subtle points that I savoured in this puzzle. The one I would like to highlight is the first “‘s” in the clue to 19a UNCLAIMED. Often “‘s” is used as a filler to achieve a good surface, but here it is an essential part of the definition “apparently nobody’s”).

    I was another minnow, by the way (with reference to MINOTAUR), but I immediately saw ‘minor’ as what the setter probably intended.

    Huge thanks to Puck, and to Andrew for his clear blog.

  31. Eileen @27. I rather like the idea of that LUM wish for a new home. Though, on second thoughts, having recently moved to an area where every other house seems to have a wood burning stove, I find there are too many lums reeking here. Whatever happened to smokeless zones?

  32. Quite an entertaining puzzle, and like the previous two ISB themed ones I missed the theme again. Annoyingly BATHS was last in.

    Thanks to Puck and Andrew

  33. “Mrs Thompson gave me a bear. Brigitte and some people lived upstairs.”

    Thanks Eileen, Andrew, Simon and Puck(who doesnt need to pop in now)

  34. Thanks to Puck and Andrew. An enjoyable if somewhat tricky solve for me, left hand went in quite readily but right hand took me a while to sort out. Last ones in dedaubing Latino and howling, though I also needed to come here to clarify some bits of parsing. I liked middleweights, baths and unclaimed though lots of other nice clues. Thanks again to Puck and Andrew.

  35. Many thanks Simon S @21 – well spotted! Banged it on the turntable straight away – bit crackly but the boys are in fine voice!

  36. Very enjoyable puzzle, something to get one’s teeth into after the last couple of days. But I never thought of SWITCHES at 2d, so I couldn’t quite work out how the pollarding worked. That said, does birch get pollarded? Round this way (Epping Forest etc), the likes of hornbeam and beech get pollarded, while birch gets coppiced.

  37. My clear favourite so far this week. Left with five empty answers in the SW, and many of those I did get I couldn’t parse (ILLUMINE, DOMINANT, OOMPH et al), but still a very enjoyable experience. In contrast to some it was the bottom half which gave me much more trouble than the top.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  38. Never would have noticed the theme, but altogether excellent from Puck: an easy entry point (WITCHES, GHETTO, etc.) but getting very tough towards the end!

    How many honestly parsed DOMINANT first-off, especially if they’re not from a musical background?  Very few, I reckon.  One of the best and hardest DD’s I’ve seen for ages.  My only quibble is, should it be “Sol” rather than “So”?  That would fit in with the name of the system, “Sol-fa”, and is how it is given in Wiki – but I think I’ve heard it uttered as “So” too.

    When I got to HAT I was doubtful as to whether the wordplay was overlapping the definition, but Andrew says it’s an &lit.  Note that the word HAT is hidden twice in the clue – a slight blemish?

    I won’t pass comment on MINOTAUR – I’ve said enough about homophones in previous blogs!

    Too many favourites here to enumerate.  OOMPH, NANKEEN, DAUGHTER, ISAAC, ACT ONE, UNCLAIMED … the list goes on and on.

    UNCLAIMED reminded me of the one instance I know of, where UNCLE is used as a verb (think: “father” as a verb).  It’s in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, where a footnote explains Ford Prefect’s ancestry: “Ford’s father … came to live on Betelgeuse Five, where he both fathered and uncled Ford…”   Please don’t ask me to deduce anything from that about Ford’s genealogy!

    I guessed at ILLUMINE and didn’t know LUM, though it comes to me that we’ve had that word before in a puzzle.

    Good stuff, Puck, thanks – and Andrew.

  39. Julie Andrews sings SO – also transliterated as SOH. Why do the French call the system ‘solfège’? I presume it comes from Italian… Will listen to ISB material later: I remember my brother having it I think, but I was too busy neglecting my homework.

  40. Best of the week so far. I suppose that’s not saying much given the last two but I really did enjoy this. Mind you, I didn’t get the theme. I don’t think I’ve heard The Hangman’s etc. but I never cared much for ISB – too whimsical for me by far.
    Anyway,I liked MIDDLEWEIGHTS,MINOTAUR and DOMINANT with the latter being clue of the day.
    Lots of fun.
    Thanks Puck.

  41. [I think the last ISB themed one was The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter as well. Perhaps I ought to try it; I have The Big Huge, which is one of my favourite albums, but I didn’t like Wee Tam, and haven’t bothered to track down any others (though I do have some later Robin Williamson albums).]

  42. [One of the Robin Williamson albums is with John Renbourn. They considered calling themselves The impenetrable string tangle 🙂 ]

  43. Thanks to Puck and Andrew. I finally got through but did not parse a batch of items already mentioned (the list includes ISAAC, NEW MOON, and MIDDLEWEIGHT) though I did know lum from previous puzzles. It may be worth mentioning that in the First Folio (the only early printed version of Macbeth) the word “witch” appears only once (“aroint thee witch” in 1.3) as opposed to “wyrd” or “weyard” sisters in the original spelling.

  44. AlanB&29 (I think) – you make a great point about the ‘s in 19a being an integral part of the clue – they usually aren’t.
    As for ISB I’ve just listened to Hangman’s etc again and realised they were one of the bands I felt I should like because the coolest person ever on the radio (and possibly the planet) was playing and waxing lyrical about it, but I didn’t really enjoy or get it then – and I’m no nearer 50 years later. But it’s still a great puzzle.

  45. WhiteKing@44 [and Alan B @30] – that’s exactly why I had a tick [UNCLAIMED 😉 ] for 19ac – one of the gems.

  46. [I looked on Amazon for it (too expensive!), but it reminded me that the previous ISB puzzle was in fact “5000 spirits or layers of the onion”, I think.]

  47. I thought this was a tremendous puzzle. One of the best of the year for me. (However it did follow yesterday’s travesty)

    Precise cluing and a good challenge.

    Of course I didn’t notice the Incredible String Band theme. I do remember them being around but I was definitely more interested in other types of music then. (Purely a “classical” listener now however)

    I did glance at the album on Spotify and it does appear that all bar the first tracks, of which there are many, were referenced in the clues. I skim listend to it and sadly to me it resembled some kind of a joke folk singer thing. More akin to Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band than Steeleye Span, Sandy Denny etc. Quite appalling really IMHO of course!

    I too had MINNOW TOR for the homophone. Perfectly fine!

  48. What fun today!  I never would have spotted the ghost theme.  The ISB is not a musical act I know very well, apart from recognizing the name and vaguely suspecting I’ve heard something or other played by them.  I am listening to The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter on YouTube as I type this.  It’s interesting, although this far into the album I’m not prepared to stand on a rooftop (or a lum perhaps) and proclaim it as my jorum of lush.

    Many great and witty clues today, even without spotting the ghost theme (which, had I spotted it, would have only raised my already high opinion of this puzzle, even higher).  My favorites included UNCLAIMED, NEW MOON, and my co-CotDs (Cs otD?), SWINDLE and DAUGHTER.  I missed the “ISA account” explained in Andrew’s blog, but the answer was gettable by “One of three patriarchs”.

    Many thanks to Puck and Andrew and the other commenters.

     

  49. Wonderful crossword!!

    Puck’s third Incredible String Band puzzle – he must be a real fan.

    I’m still waiting for Wee Tam (and Air [which, for me, will always be remembered by its appropriate inclusion in the 1971 Milos Forman movie Taking Off] and Ducks On A Pond).

    By the way, I missed the theme …………

     

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